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I, Queequeg, rewatch I, Claudius

Started by Queequeg, July 25, 2009, 06:51:36 PM

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The Larch

#30
July 27, 2009, 06:08:08 AM

Sheilbh

#31
July 27, 2009, 06:16:39 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on July 27, 2009, 01:32:46 AM
Saying that Blessed's performance is a bit OTT is like saying the Pope is a catholic of course  :D
:lol:  I do love him.

QuoteGraves used to get very annoyed when people said he'd just sat down and read Suetonius and then written I, Claudius btw. He said that he had read or consulted 50 different sources. I'd still say that even so Suetonius is his guiding light.
Yeah, I mean Penguin Classics still publish Graves's translation of Suetonius so I think it's fair to say he knew the text very well.

I should say I love the Livia did it theory because it gives Sian Phillips a great role :)
Let's bomb Russia!

Malthus

#32
July 27, 2009, 08:21:39 AM
I'm a big fan of the series. I didn't mind Blessed's Augustus - it was supposed to be a portrait of an old man basically losing his grip to the vipers in his own family. Chalk it up to senility.  ;)

I particularly liked Sejanus - though it is hard not to think of the actor as Captain Picard.  :lol:
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

The Minsky Moment

#33
July 27, 2009, 09:00:52 AM
Quote from: Queequeg on July 25, 2009, 06:51:36 PM
I haven't seen this since I was 10.  It is really great; the early seasons where burdened by a weird performance by Brian Blessed and the usage of the truly absurd THE BENE GESSERIT WITCH DID IT  LIVIA DID IT theory of Early Imperial history,

It's not *that* absurd - it is basically an elaboration on the anti-Livian gossip in Tacitus.
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

Syt

#34
July 27, 2009, 09:43:24 AM
Quote from: The Larch on July 27, 2009, 06:08:08 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 26, 2009, 08:08:41 PM
Quote from: Martinus on July 26, 2009, 01:11:34 PM
Brian Blessed is good at bellowing, though. :P
IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME NOT SLEEPING WITH MY DAUGHTER?

WHERE ARE MY EAGLES? :lol:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitleijqobqvle9an?from=Main.BRIANBLESSED

QuoteIT IS SAID BY SOME THAT THE CHARACTER OF DESTRUCTION (A SENTIENT PERSONIFICATION OF DIFFICULT CHANGES WHO HAS QUIT HIS JOB TO BECOME AN ARTIST) FROM THE SANDMAN IS BASED ON HIM. SINCE AUTHOR NEIL GAIMAN IS ONE OF THE ONES WHO SAYS THIS, IT IS PERHAPS TRUE BUT NO LESS UNLIKELY.
:lol:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

jimmy olsen

#35
July 27, 2009, 10:23:52 AM
Quote from: The Larch on July 27, 2009, 06:08:08 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 26, 2009, 08:08:41 PM
Quote from: Martinus on July 26, 2009, 01:11:34 PM
Brian Blessed is good at bellowing, though. :P
IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME NOT SLEEPING WITH MY DAUGHTER?

WHERE ARE MY EAGLES? :lol:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitleijqobqvle9an?from=Main.BRIANBLESSED
NOOO!!!!! Not TV Tropes! A man can got stuck in there for days!
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Malthus

#36
July 27, 2009, 10:25:31 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 27, 2009, 10:23:52 AM

NOOO!!!!! Not TV Tropes! A man can got stuck in there for days!

That's true enough.  :lol: Damn addictive.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

jimmy olsen

#37
July 27, 2009, 10:28:41 AM
Quote from: Malthus on July 27, 2009, 10:25:31 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 27, 2009, 10:23:52 AM

NOOO!!!!! Not TV Tropes! A man can got stuck in there for days!

That's true enough.  :lol: Damn addictive.
There's always another trope you've never heard of that you just have to click on.

I've spent hours and hours going through the all the tropes listed for just one anime series.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

The Larch

#38
July 27, 2009, 11:44:59 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on July 27, 2009, 10:23:52 AM
Quote from: The Larch on July 27, 2009, 06:08:08 AM
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 26, 2009, 08:08:41 PM
Quote from: Martinus on July 26, 2009, 01:11:34 PM
Brian Blessed is good at bellowing, though. :P
IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME NOT SLEEPING WITH MY DAUGHTER?

WHERE ARE MY EAGLES? :lol:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitleijqobqvle9an?from=Main.BRIANBLESSED
NOOO!!!!! Not TV Tropes! A man can got stuck in there for days!

That site is worth it just for the BRIAN BLESSED entry.   :lmfao:

Queequeg

#39
July 27, 2009, 04:59:59 PM
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on July 27, 2009, 09:00:52 AM
It's not *that* absurd - it is basically an elaboration on the anti-Livian gossip in Tacitus.
Augustus lived to a ripe old age and was sickly for much of his life.  And mortality was common in the Ancient World, and I'd expect that with the rapid moral and political change of the period there was more than one old woman who was willing to kill his/her family members for a leg up.  No reason to believe Tacitus to the letter. 

I'm starting to wonder how much of the sexual "history" of both the Romans and Byzantines is bullshit.  Some of the details of this seem really implausible  even for fantastically rich and debauched people. 
Quote from: PDH on April 25, 2009, 05:58:55 PM
"Dysthymia?  Did they get some student from the University of Chicago with a hard-on for ancient Bactrian cities to name this?  I feel cheated."

grumbler

#40
July 27, 2009, 06:30:53 PM
Quote from: Malthus on July 27, 2009, 08:21:39 AM
I particularly liked Sejanus - though it is hard not to think of the actor as Captain Picard.  :lol:
For a long time, I had the opposite problem!  :lol:

Picard: Sign it.
Data: What is it?
Picard: A confession.
Data: To what?
Picard: Your conspiracy with Geordi to subvert the computer systems. Sign it.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Caliga

#41
July 27, 2009, 08:47:25 PM
Quote from: Queequeg on July 27, 2009, 04:59:59 PMI'm starting to wonder how much of the sexual "history" of both the Romans and Byzantines is bullshit.  Some of the details of this seem really implausible  even for fantastically rich and debauched people.
I think it is generally accepted that Suetonius was quite over the top.  A modern day version of Ed Anger (the real Ed Anger, not the poster).  That doesn't make the read any less hilarious, of course.
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

Valmy

#42
July 27, 2009, 09:05:53 PM
Generally if an Emperor was remembered as being a tyrant, ancient people generally just lumped shitloads of character assasination on him endlessly just to underline the fact that this guy was a really really bad guy.

So in the memory he would go from being merely petty, cruel, and inneffectual to a sexually depraved combination of Skeletor and Megatron.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Caliga

#43
July 27, 2009, 09:11:32 PM
Quote from: Valmy on July 27, 2009, 09:05:53 PM
So in the memory he would go from being merely petty, cruel, and inneffectual to a sexually depraved combination of Skeletor and Megatron.
:lol:
0 Ed Anger Disapproval Points

Habsburg

#44
July 27, 2009, 10:30:40 PM
Quote from: Sheilbh on July 27, 2009, 06:16:39 AM

I should say I love the Livia did it theory because it gives Sian Phillips a great role :)

:yes: !!
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